--- In
rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com, John Williams
<johnwilliams@...> wrote:
>
>
> My favourite Kennedy conspiracy is that contained in
Charles
McCarry's
> wonderful espionage noir The Tears of Autumn. Very
simply - and
this
> isn't a spoiler in any meaningful sense of the word
- the
Vietnamese did
> it. There's a good, long piece about McCarry and the
book here -
>
http://www.laweekly.com/news/features/the-great-american-spy-
novel/792/
>
> John
I agree with your high praise for THE TEARS OF AUTUMN by one
of my favorite writers Charles McCarry. And thanks for the
link to the excellent LA Weekly article. It quoted a line
from TEARS where the protagonist Paul Christopher and his
boss in the CIA are discussing some in the Kennedy White
House who think they can "…do anything they like, to anyone
in the world, and there'll be no consequences." Christopher
tells his boss "But there always are."
"You know that," Patchen said. "For those who never smell the
corpse, there's no way of knowing."
This is not a partisan remark as it is recognition of a
political phenomenon common to new White House occupants and
top staff. McCarry spent many years in Washington in and out
of government and knows it well. While I am sure there are
others I have yet to read, McCarry, Ross Thomas and Ward Just
are three novelists who write believably about the various
power centers in Washington. Pelecanos writes well about the
Washington streets and neighborhoods but that's another
world.
One factual error, or at least a misleading statement, is in
the article. It states that McCarry was "…a speechwriter for
President Eisenhower…" McCarry was a speechwriter for
Secretary of Labor James P. Mitchell from 1956-1957. So it
would be accurate to say he was a speechwriter in the
Eisenhower Administration, but wrong to imply he was in the
West Wing or next door at EOB churning out speeches for
Ike.
I heard McCarry speak once at function at the Smithsonian and
he discussed his recruitment to the CIA by Allen Dulles at
his farewell lunch with Secretary Mitchell.
Richard Moore
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